He was quiet, used his closest family members as something of a shell to the outside world, and couldn't do many things on his own.

You can't blame him. It's not easy being a 10-year-old in a wheelchair.

But getting out of his chair and onto the ice changed everything for John Ryan. He was taken out of his comfort zone, had to trust himself, and found confidence.

Four years later his mother, Deena Martinez Burns, said discovering sled hockey was one of the most important moments in her son's life.

“That amount of things it did, he is a totally different child than he was four years ago,” Deena Martinez Burns said. “He's completely different and I owe it a lot to the sled hockey, and Tyler Seguin for having that connection to open the door. Just everything that happened through this, it's amazing.”

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Tyler Seguin's...

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